Beaver Island cell phone service.

[conis]

Greetings from Bois Blanc Island!

We on Boblo, as not as fortunate as the those on the Emerald Isle... There is a big push to try and get our cell service up to current standards. Part of this has been to forward information to the twp. Lets just say things are in the works, hopefully-maybe.

We on Bois Blanc still rely on towers in Cheboygan and along US23 with virtually no coverage in the interior of the island. A bad situation, especially in an emergency.

I have been reading through posts on this site, looking for information on how, and by who, this was accomplished? I see Cell one is the promary carrier on BI? Service was brought in 2002-2003?

Any response from those with insights, contacts or information on how to best approach this, will be welcomed.

Should this thread pick up any momentum, I will link it to the Bois Blanc website and vice versa.

I have many friends on Beaver. I need to do some island hopping and get back out there!

Thanks in advance.

Conis

[Dan Wardlow]

CellularOne has two towers on Beaver Island. If you're in town or along King's Highway, the service is great. But most of the island has no coverage or only weak spotty coverage, including our township airport. We have a CellularOne phone, but it doesn't work until we're about 5 miles from town. So our coverage situation may actually be closer to the Bois Blanc experience than you think!

[conis]

CellularOne has two towers on Beaver Island. If you're in town or along King's Highway, the service is great. But most of the island has no coverage or only weak spotty coverage, including our township airport. We have a CellularOne phone, but it doesn't work until we're about 5 miles from town. So our coverage situation may actually be closer to the Bois Blanc experience than you think!

I heard that Alltel also has a repeater somewhere in the island? Maybe the one out by the airport? Heard it doesn't work that well with folks parked under it to make calls?

The situation on Bois Blanc is different that Beaver. We are only 8 miles from mainland, no towers on the island (yet) so everything comes from Cheboygan or towers along US23. Some areas on the south shore and west end are decent and pull from Mackinac island. This all changes moving East or inland to zippo reception.

A Cellonetech indicated that putting beam antennas on the mainland towers would make a significant difference if they could be inspired to do this. This may require some intervention by Bois Blanc Township to get things in motion.

So I suppose, this was my original query. How/who got organized on Beaver to get things in motion with the Cellone/Alltel Carriers?

The other news is that most carriers are discontinuing analog (obsolete) later this year or '08 to make room on tower for updated digital. The analog service is 50% of what Reaches BBI. When thats done, Our service will go from crappy to near nonexistant. Something will have to be done soon to bring us up to date.

The situation has been presented to our Twp Government for consideration. Hopefully moved forward next (April) meeting. I am simply trying to accumulate as much information as possible so they aren't "re-inventing the wheel" to get things moving.

Thanks for your response.
C

[JulyGuy]

Am planning a family getaway this July. I can extend it if I play hooky from work an extra day or two, but only if my mobile phone works so I can check in every once and a while.

Can anybody say if Cingular/AT&T/Alltell (GSM) works on the N.W. shore of the island? (Near Indian Point)

Thanks
JulyGuy

[beckyg24]

I know that when we were on the island our Cingular phones worked great in town.

[McDonough]

Tmobile worked great

[medic5740]

As I remember the situation fairly clearly, the decision to put the towers on the Island was motivated internally from the cell phone companies. There was some requirement that made them be able to prove 96% coverage for the area that they serviced. In order to get the western part of Michigan as a coverage area, the internal decision was to put the tower on Beaver Island. The cell phone technician who worked on the tower told me this.

Too bad that is still not the case.

Putting a tower on Beaver Island allowed them to include a large portion of Lake Michigan in their coverage area. The analog equipment worked fairly well for quite a long time, but the digital does not provide anywhere close to 96% coverage of even the northern township. We could always access a tower in Wisconsin if on the western shore below the bluffs. That is not true with digital.

Now, more towers will be necessary in order to get the coverage that previously existed with analog, and, according to the salesman in Charlevoix, the costs of doing this are outrageously high. Until the cell phone companies see a reason to extend the coverage, there will probably be no extension of the coverage area.